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Multibody Modeling
MotionView is a general pre-processor for Multibody Dynamics.
MotionView Ribbons
The MotionView ribbons allows you to quickly access tools and standard functions, and is located along the top of MotionView.
Model
Create and edit various model entities.
Contacts
Use the Contacts tool to specify the attributes of a contact force between two bodies.
Contacts Post-Processing
This section summarizes the post-processing capabilities that are available in MotionView, HyperView, and HyperGraph for contact models.
HyperGraph – Plotting Contact Results

Welcome
What's New
View new features for Altair HyperWorks 2024.1.
Get Started
Learn the basics and discover the workspace.
Tutorials
Learn more about the Altair HyperWorks suite of products with interactive tutorials.
Startup Procedures and Customizations
Start and configure the applications.
Tool Finder
View a list of deprecated panels and their newer, equivalent workflows.
Manage Files and Data
Create, open, import, and save models.
Sessions and Report Templates
Set up sessions and create report templates.
Interface with External Products
Solver interfaces supported in HyperMesh.
Entities and Solver Interfaces
A solver interface is made up of a template and a FE-input reader.
Browsers
Browsers provide a structured view of model data, which you can use to review, modify, create, and manage the contents of a model. In addition to visualization, browsers offer features like search, filtering, and sorting, which enhance your ability to navigate and interact with the model data.
Sketching
Create and edit 2D parametric sketch geometry.
Topology
Create, edit, and cleanup geometry.
FE Geometry
FE geometry is topology on top of mesh, meaning CAD and mesh exist as a single entity. The purpose of FE geometry is to add vertices, edges, surfaces, and solids on FE models which have no CAD geometry.
Meshing and Elements
Explore the different types of mesh you can create in HyperMesh and create and edit 0D, 1D, 2D, and 3D elements.
Model Build and Assembly
Create, organize and manage parts and subsystems.
Composites
HyperMesh composites modeling.
Connectors
Create connections between parts of your model.
Morph
Rapidly change the shape of the FE mesh without severely sacrificing the mesh quality.
Skeleton Modeling
Create a reduced ordered model to facilitate optimization at the concept phase.
Design Space
Workflow to support topology optimization model build and setup.
Optimization
Setup an Optimization in HyperMesh.
Design Explorer
Multi-disciplinary design exploration and optimization tools.
Validate
Validate the model built before running solver analysis.
Analyze
Models require loads and boundary conditions in order to represent the various physics and/or physical equivalents to bench and in-use testing.
Axisymmetry
Reduce a full 3D model with axisymmetric surfaces while accounting for imperfections.
Concept Modeling
Tools and workflows that are dedicated to rapidly creating new parts for specific use cases, or amending existing parts. The current capabilities are focused on stiffening parts.
Crash and Safety
Tools used for crash and safety analysis.
Airbag
Use airbag folder utilities and export a resulting airbag in a Radioss deck.
Aerospace
Essential utility tools developed using HyperMesh-Tcl.
Aeroelasticity
Import an aeroelastic finite element model with Nastran Bulk Data format.
Certification
Framework to plug certification methods to assess margin of safety from the model and result information.
PhysicsAI
Use PhysicsAI to build fast predictive models from CAE data. PhysicsAI can be trained on data with any physics or remeshing and without design variables.
Results Data
Results data can be post-processed using both HyperMesh and HyperView.
Developer
The Developer ribbon contains tools for automation and customization.
Plot Data
HyperGraph is a data analysis and plotting tool with interfaces to many file formats.
Multibody Modeling
MotionView is a general pre-processor for Multibody Dynamics.
- MotionView Overview
  MotionView is a general pre-processor for Multibody Dynamics.
- Model Browser
  The Model Browser allows you to view the MotionView model structure while providing display and editing control of entities.
- MotionView Ribbons
  The MotionView ribbons allows you to quickly access tools and standard functions, and is located along the top of MotionView.
  - Assembly
    Create and edit systems, assemblies, and analyses, use wizards to build models quickly, create and edit belt/pullies, NLFE stabars, and NLFE springs, access the EDEM and Track Builder tools.
  - Geometry
    Create and edit points, bodies, lines (curve graphics), solids (graphics), markers and vectors, edit grounded/ungrounded bodies, create and edit rigid body groups, configure gravity, and select material properties.
  - Model
    Create and edit various model entities.
    - Joints
      Use the Joints tool to create and edit joints.
    - Motions
      Use the Motions tool to create motions and to edit the initial conditions, displacements, velocities, and acceleration of joints.
    - Couplers
      A Coupler entity defines an algebraic relationship between the degrees of freedom of two or three joints.
    - Gears
      Use the Gears tool to create a gear entity to relate the motion of two joints.
    - Advanced Joints
      Use the Advanced Joints tool to create and edit a set of special constraints called higher pair joints. Typically, these are constraints that involve a curve or surface on at least one of the two bodies.
    - Spring Dampers
      Use the Spring Dampers tool to edit the connectivity, properties, and initial conditions of springs and dampers.
    - Bushings
      Use the Bushings tool to create bushings and edit their connectivity, properties, and orientation rules.
    - Beams
      Use the Beams to create beams and edit their connectivity, properties, and orientations.
    - Polybeams
      Use the PolyBeams tool to create polybeams and edit their points and properties.
    - Forces
      Use the Forces tool to create forces and to edit the orientation and properties of forces.
    - FrequencyInputs
      Defines excitation inputs to a Frequency Response Analysis.
    - Contacts
      Use the Contacts tool to specify the attributes of a contact force between two bodies.
      - Create Contacts Using the Contacts Tool
        The Contacts tool allows you to create a contact force between two bodies, a body and deformable curve or a deformable surface, or between two deformable curves or two deformable surfaces.
      - Edit Contacts
        Contact properties can be edited using the Entity Editor. Checks on graphics for suitability for contacts can also be performed.
      - Flex Contact
        MotionSolve supports contact between a flexible body and a rigid body or another flexible body. The method to add such a contact to a model is the same as a Rigid to Rigid Contact and uses the same panel as the contact between rigid bodies.
      - Contacts Post-Processing
        This section summarizes the post-processing capabilities that are available in MotionView, HyperView, and HyperGraph for contact models.
        HyperView - Contact Overview
        
        HyperView – Visualizing Transient Results
        HyperGraph – Plotting Contact Results
        Plotting Contact Forces
        MotionView – View Reports
      - Best Practices for Running 3D Contact Models in MotionSolve
      - Geometry Cleanup for Contact Modeling
    - Contact Properties Editor
      The Contact Properties Editor macro enables you to edit multiple contact force entities in a model simultaneously.
    - General Constraints
      Use the General Constraints tool to create a generic expression-based constraint.
    - Fields
      Use the Fields tool to create a compliant connection between two bodies where stiffness or damping in one direction can be a function of displacement in another direction
    - Modal Forces
      The Modal Forces tool allows you to include a disturbed force on a flexible body that exists in the modal form in the flexible body H3D.
    - Surfaces
      Use the Surfaces tool to create and edit surfaces.
    - Deformable Curves
      Use the Curves tool to create and edit deformable curves.
    - Deformable Surfaces
      Use the Surfaces and Surfaces from FEM tools to create and edit deformable surfaces.
    - Spline2D/Curves
      Use the Spline2D/Curves tool to create and edit curves.
    - Spline3D
      The Spline3D panel allows you to add and edit three dimensional spline data.
    - Solver Variables
      Use the Variables tool to create solver variables that can be used to create an algebraic expression of state variables, as well as other solver variables. This can then be referenced in function expressions throughout the solver input file.
    - Datasets
      Use the DataSets tool to create and edit datasets comprised of object types, such as real, string, boolean, integer, and options.
    - Solver Arrays
      Use the Arrays tool to create solver arrays and set solver array data. Solver array types include X array, Y array, U array, IC array, Plant Input array, and Plant Output array.
    - Solver Strings
      Use the Strings tool to create a solver string and set solver string data. A solver string provides a string that can be accessed within the model, for example, to pass into a user subroutine.
    - Sensors
      Use the Sensors tool to sense an event during simulation and to define a response to that event
    - Control SISOs
      Use the SISOs tool to set control SISO data. This data can be used to add additional states to the mechanical system being modeled.
    - FMU
      Use the FMU tool to add a Functional Mock-up Unit and connect it to a multibody model.
    - Control State Equations
      Use the State Equations tool to create and set control state equation data.
    - Solver Differential Equations
      Use the Diff Equations tool to set solver differential equations. These equations can be used to add additional states to the mechanical system being modeled.
    - Orientation
      Use the Orientation tool to align an entity along a particular direction.
  - Analyze
    Create and edit outputs, create and edit templates, run the solver, view reports, access the Load Export utility, use the Optimization Wizard, open HyperStudy, utilize many pre-processing and post-processing capabilities with regards to flexible bodies (or flexbodies), run MS/EDEM cosimulation in batch mode, and generate H3D from EDEM.
- MotionView CAD Interfacing
  MotionView supports the importing of several types of CAD and FE formats.
- Flexible Bodies
  MotionView has many pre-processing and post-processing capabilities with regards to flexible bodies, or flexbodies, for multibody dynamics models.
- Functional Mockup Unit (FMU)
  Add an FMU to the model or export a model as an FMU.
- Vehicle Modeling
  Explore the various vehicle modeling tools.
- Tcl/Tk Reference Guide
  Reference material for the scripting interface which is a set of Tcl/Tk commands.
- MDL Reference Guide
  Reference materials for the MotionView MDL Language, Tire Modeling, and the MDL Library.
- MotionSolve Reference Guide
  Reference material detailing command statements, model statements, functions and the Subroutine Interface available in MotionSolve.
- Templex and Math Reference Guide
  Reference material for Templex (a general purpose text and numeric processor) and additional mathematical functions and operators.
- MotionView Python Reference Guide
  Reference materials for the MotionView Python Language.
Media Files
MediaView plays video files, displays static images, tracks objects, and measures distances.
Tabulate Results
Use TableView to create an Excel-like spreadsheet.
Text Files
TextView math scripts reference vector data from HyperGraph windows to automate data processing and data summary.
Publishing and Reporting
Create, define, and export reports.

View All Altair HyperWorks Help

HyperGraph – Plotting Contact Results

For each contact you define in MotionView, two contact REQUESTS are automatically written to the XML file for MotionSolve. As a part of its post-simulation activities, MotionSolve will write out the data associated with these REQUESTS to the output file(s) you selected.

Contact results are written to the ABF, MRF, and PLT files. The same contact information is available in each file.

The first REQUEST contains the net force and torque experienced by the reference MARKER associated with the I-Geometry of the contact.
The second REQUEST contains the net force and torque experienced by the reference MARKER associated with the J-Geometry of the contact.

For each REQUEST the following time histories are available:


F1	The magnitude of the total contact force experienced by the reference MARKER.
F2	The X-component of the total contact force experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.
F3	The Y-component of the total contact force experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.
F4	The Y-component of the total contact force experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.
F5	The magnitude of the total contact torque experienced by the reference MARKER. The non-zero moment arm of the vector from the REFERENCE MARKER to each contact point causes this torque.
F6	The X-component of the total contact torque experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.
F7	The Y-component of the total contact torque experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.
F8	The Z-component of the total contact torque experienced by the reference MARKER, as computed in the coordinate system of the RM MARKER of the REQUEST. When not specified, the RM MARKER defaults to the global coordinate system.